first thing to do is remove your instrument cluster. then remove the top cover and bottom cover. after you have done this remove all needles. BESURE TO MARK THEM BEFORE YOU REMOVE THEM!!!

now seperate the circuit board from the front face of the cluster. to do this you will need to grip the circuit board with one hand and the face plate with the othe and gently work your way accross the cluster untill the circuit board has pulled away from the front face.

now take the front plate and look at it from the back side. notice where the factory trans gauge would have gone. they have centered it for you no guessing here. just drill a quarter inch hole in the hole provided.
this what the front will look like

now take a 2-1/2" holesaw and drill out the hole. the hole will look much nicer, if you start from the front and drill back. just have someone hold the face for you. also make sure you drill straight down dont let it go in at an angle.

now test fit your gauge in the new hole you just cut in.make sure it is stting where you want it. ( nice and level as if you where going to put it in right now.look at the finished pic and that will give you an idea of how level it should be.) then place the circuit board over the back as if you where going to put it on. this will allow you to mark where the holes are gonna be for the bolts in the back of the gauge. mark the bolts and the drill them out.

now after you have drilled out the two holes remove the gauge from the front face plate. this makes it easier to work with. take the gauge and slide it into the two holes you just drilled into the circuit baord. being sure it is right side up. dont want to install in upside down.

now mark the three shorter screws and drill them out.

now comes the tricky part. take a 1/2' drill bit and you will have to get as close as possible to where the hole for the light is going to be. drill the hole out being sure not to drill into the flat wire that is directly above it. IF YOU CUT THAT FLAT WIRE ABOVE THE HOLE SHOWN YOUR FUBAR'D
SO BE CAREFULL HERE. after you have drill the hole test fit your gauge with the light allready in, and take a dremmal tool and grind what you need to get the light socket to fit.

should look like this

now comes a very important part. If you notice in this pic there are 4 flat wires going to where the factory gauge would have been. we need to cut the wires so that they will not short anything out. mainly in the new gauge.
to do this simply take a small drill bit and drill each flat wire in two. Basically you are cutting them. you will want to cut them where I have place my finger here

you dont want to drill all the way through the circuit board, but just enough to cut thru the wire.

this pic shows you the other places that need to be cut. make sure you cut these all in the same spot. should keep the guage from shorting out. just take a look at it and see if there is a pathway to another screw. if not then you are ok.

now take the front cover and notice the hole for the factory trans guage. notice the raised line all the way around the hole. you will want to grind the hole all the way to that line. you will have to test fit and grind untill the bezel of the gauge will fit up into the factory bezel.

it should look like this after you have finished grinding.

now you need to reinstall the needles on the marks you made earlier so that they will be put back where they where.

now put the face cover back on and snap it back together.

now one last thing todo before you install it back into your truck. on the black part of the back section there is a dimple behind the trans gauge. take you 2-1/2 hole saw and rill it out. the take your dremmel and grind out what you need for the nuts from the screws to fit.

once you have done this you can install it back into the truck following the wiring diagram provided by Auto Meter.


Hope this helps everyone out.
And a big thanks to 02DENALI for letting me install this into his instrument cluster so I could document the install
if you have any more questions shoot me a Pm and I will try to answer them.

 

Looks great !!
Thanks
You could start charging for installs !!

 

 

Nice writeup, looks like a hell of a lot of work, though!

I found a place on eBay where you can buy a Denali cluster for $185, which gives you the 120 mph speedometer in addition to the tranny gage. Of course, you have to have the mileage transferred after that.

 

and after you spend 185 for the cluster ,and then what ever it costs to change the mileage. I just spent 50 bucks and maybe 2 hrs of my time to achieve the same thing and it looks good to.
the 120 mph doesnt interest me anyways. I was hitting the 128mph speed limiter with the HPPIII, and now I know i go way over that with edit. so untill the come out with a 150MPH speedo it's not worth it IMO
In fact it took me longer to do this write up than it took me to install the guage

 

are you driving the green giant truck or are you very very short
no seriusly look very good, I will like to do this but have not found a trans gauge
silver with blue #

 

Nice write up man! I know you have but I would really stress that experienced people do that mod. Good job!

 

yeah I agree, just was having alot of people asking how it was done. figured it would help them out to see how it was done.

but on the other hand if someone wants this done, and doesnt feel comfortable doing this theirselves. I will be offering to do it.
pm me and we can work on the details.